chronicles from the north, where our two academic mom, one daughter familycrunches its way through life's adventures

18 January 2006

10 by 10, part the seventh

Not owning an iPod, this is my version of a random 10, dashed off relatively quickly before I move to finishing my class prep for tomorrow:

61. I was a music major in college before I switched to English. Another good decision made for embarassing reasons: I realized I got better grades in English with less work. I worked really hard in music theory classes and only got Bs.

62. I forgot to mention in my previous set of 10 that my love for tea has led my tea cabinet, most of the time, to resemble the tea cabinet in Go Fish. Of late, I've been reducing the number of herbal teas to keep them more fresh more of the time, but I like having lots of tea around.

63. I'm much more athletic in my 40s than I ever was as a child. In fact, I've gotten consistently more athletic as I've gotten older.

64. But I've not gotten much faster at most sports. I am a slow, slow runner. And I'm not very good at catching balls.

65. I do like spinning, and weight lifting. Sports that are all about technique, and not about competition.

67. In 7th grade, my English teacher wrote on my report card, "Perhaps Susan reads too quickly." That I remember it still tells you something about how I hear criticism way more loudly than I hear praise. And it tells you that I overcame some low reading comprehension scores to turn my speedy reading into a professional asset. Although I still have to remind myself to read more slowly sometimes.

68. I've been president of almost every organization I've been part of. I'm a joiner, and I hate watching things get done badly. So I tend to volunteer to do a lot of stuff. But I've learned to delegate--in fact, I now think that good delegation is essential to good leadership.

69. I think a lot about leadership, parenting, professing, and teaching. While Curious Girl is not my student, and my students are not my child, and my workplace is not a family, there are some elements of forming relationships and teaching fundamentals that usefully illuminate how to motivate people.

70. I was very excited about Alfie Kohn's Unconditional Parenting. So much so that Politica eventually got sick of my referring to it, and so now we simply refer to him as He Whom We Shall Not Name. I don't like time out. Neither does Kohn.

2 comments:

Weight lifting? Boy, I wish you lived next door to me right now. It's a long story, but there are 10 70-pound objects piled on our front porch right now, and I can't even budge them enough to move them out of the way of the front door. Stupid. I *hate* feeling like a helpless female.

Well, for that, you'd need a dolley or someone stronger--I can lift 55 lbs on some exercises and that's my max. but I do like the fact that weight lifting makes me feel strong (even if I'm not lifting so much weight). It's been a positive influence on my body image (which has sorely needed a boost).